Correction: This article should have said Rosemary Piekarski Krech and Dennis Madden voted for a permitted use, while Mayor George Tourville and Bill Klein voted for an interim use.

The Inver Grove Heights City Council has shot down a contentious plan for a gun safety program on private land owned by a former mayor.

The land, owned by Vance Grannis Jr. and two of his cousins, has triggered debate among neighbors who are divided about whether a firearms safety training certification course should be allowed there.

Those opposed to the course say shooting would pose safety risks, cause unnecessary noise and affect wildlife. Supporters say the program promotes gun safety among young shooters and that concerns about noise are unwarranted.

With council chambers crowded with residents on both sides of the issue, the council on Monday, Aug. 13, failed to pass an ordinance amendment that would have allowed the gun safety program to operate on the land, which is south of Minnesota 55 and west of U.S. 52.

The council was split on whether it should be classified as an interim use for 12 months or permanently as a permitted use. Rosemary Piekarski Krech and Dennis Madden voted for a permitted use; Mayor George Tourville and Bill Klein voted for an interim use. A majority vote was needed for the measure to pass.

Grannis’ son, city council member Vance “Chip” Grannis III, abstained from the discussion and votes.

City Planner Allan Hunting said in a memo prepared for Monday’s meeting that concerns raised last month by council members relating to parking, restrooms and what type of building is needed for classroom training held on site have been resolved.

Under the proposal, shooting at the nearly 100-acre site would have taken place up to six times a year with .22-caliber rifles.

Department of Natural Resources officials said safety would not be an issue because the young shooters would fire toward a hill and that nearby homes are about 100 feet higher in elevation.

On Monday, resident Dave Moline gave the council a petition with 190 signatures of those opposed to the plan.

“The vast majority of the people that we talked to were not against the gun safety program; they were only against the location of it and the fact that’s it’s in a residential area,” he said. “There have to be other places we can do it.”

Grannis, who was mayor of Inver Grove Heights in the 1960s, said he inquired about the program with city staff after being approached by the West End Gun Club and the DNR.

In recent years, Grannis also has worked with legislators and Dakota County officials to establish a nature center on his property and adjoining land owned by the Lindberg family.

Last week, a part of that plan came to fruition when the county struck a $2.21 million deal with the Lindbergs to put 103 acres into the county’s Farmland and Natural Areas Program and shield it from development.

Grannis said that if state funding for a conservation easement is approved for his property, he would try to build an indoor environmental education center. The lower level of the building would include a firing range for firearms and archery safety, he said.

“The important thing is gun safety is a small part of what we’re trying to do here,” Grannis said before Monday’s votes.

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